This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
The audit tool reads a config you paste. Paste a config you are allowed to hold, with secrets removed. If a secret is in the file, rotate it. The tool does not log in.
One gap is the result: administration from any source, a wide policy, or a stale admin. The fix is a later how-to with a backup already taken. This list is not a certification.
Do not install a policy to clear a finding in the reading hour. Do not paste someone else's config.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Confirm the firewall is yours.
- Redact and rotate secrets.
- Read one finding.
- Name the later fix.
- Do not install a policy.
- Do not call the result a certification.
Mistakes that outlive the command
FortiGate Hardening Checklist goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- Someone else's config.
- A secret left in the paste.
- A wide policy kept.
- An install during the reading.
- A certification claimed.
Decisions to write down
One decision for FortiGate Hardening Checklist: The firewall is yours. One gap is named. The fix waits. Nothing was installed. And this is not a certification.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The hostname is written. The gap is written. Secrets are absent. The backup is named. And no policy was installed. If one of those fails, stop.
Before you leave the device
FortiGate Hardening Checklist ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.
One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.
- Pillar: Network Device Hardening Guide
- Checklist: Palo Alto PAN-OS Hardening Checklist
- Checklist: Juniper Junos Hardening Checklist
- Checklist: Cisco ASA Hardening Checklist
Companion: Security: Server Hardening Guide.